Three killed, 360,000 without power as freak storm hits Ireland

Ireland was hit by an "unprecedented storm" on Monday that left three people dead, more than 300,000 customers without power and shut down schools and government offices.

A police spokesman said one woman in her 50s was killed outside the village of Aglish, near the south coast, by a tree falling on her car. A female passenger in her 70s suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

One man died in an accident while he was clearing a fallen tree with a chainsaw near the town of Cahir, about 35 kilometres (22 miles) further inland.

And a second man was killed on the roads by a falling tree north of Dundalk in the northeast, close to the border with Northern Ireland, police said in a statement.

Ophelia, the largest hurricane ever recorded so far east in the Atlantic Ocean and the furthest north since 1939, was downgraded to a storm before it hit the Irish coast but nonetheless wrought havoc.

"It will bring further violent and destructive winds for a time," Met Eireann, the Irish National Meteorological Service, said.

Flooding was also expected "due to either heavy thundery downpours or storm surges in coastal areas," the service said after issuing a red alert for the whole country.

Winds reached 191 kilometres (119 miles) per hour at Fastnet Rock, Ireland's southernmost point, while the strongest winds recorded onshore were 156 kph (97 mph) at the entrance to Cork Harbour in the southwest.

Seventeen millimetres of rain fell at Valentia on the southwest coast, including nine millimetres in one hour.

The Electricity Supply Board said 360,000 customers were without power, due to more than 3,200 individual faults on the network.

"All customers impacted by outages should prepare to be without electricity for a number of days," it said. "Five to 10 percent of this number will be without power for up to 10 days."

Dublin Airport scrapped 180 flights while Cork Airport cancelled most flights in what it said was the worst storm seen in its 56-year history. Meanwhile several services to and from Shannon, the third-biggest airport, were also grounded.

- PM says stay indoors -

"Stay indoors wherever you are until the storm has passed," Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told reporters.

"I don't want anyone to think that this is anything other than a national emergency and a red alert."

The Department of Education closed all schools, colleges and other education institutions on Monday due to the "unprecedented storm", with minister Richard Burton saying schools would remain closed on Tuesday.

Storm Ophelia

Laurence CHU, AFP

Government offices were also shut.

Ireland's top football team Cork City were hit when their stadium roof collapsed, the day before they hoped to seal the league title at their Turners Cross ground.

The eye of the storm is forecast to track across Northern Ireland and then Scotland.

Though it will weaken as it goes, gusts are expected to reach 80 mph (129 kph) in the UK.